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Simple Craft Company is a cute, aromatic food nook in The Beach

Doing what her customers like and tapping into her own passion for food is what Fiona Bramzell's storefront is all about.

Fiona Bramzell, of the Simple Craft Company, chats with a customer. The shop, whose focus is on the fresh, local and unique, is on Main St. in the east end. (Rick Madonik / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

By Diane PetersSpecial to the Star

Thu., June 29, 2017

It smells heavenly at The Simple Craft Company on Main St. near Gerrard Ave.

“I just made oatcakes,” owner Fiona Bramzell says. She’s not a huge fan but her customers, many of whom are from the U.K., crave this Old-World treat, which you use almost like a cracker, although they look — and smell — like a cookie.

Doing what her customers like, and what taps into her own passion for food and local, is what this small storefront is all about.

Bramzell has lived in the Upper Beaches for 20 years. Years ago, she owned a restaurant, but raising a daughter on her own meant she had to be more creative with her endeavours. She worked at a local coffee shop for many years and wrote a food column and served as editorial assistant for a local paper.

With her daughter now a teenager, last summer Bramzell was ready to go in business for herself again. She thought the DIY trend was something she should get into. “I wanted to get people back to learning a craft,” Bramzell says, who’s pretty industrious herself.

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She opened this storefront in May last year — on a downtrodden stretch of Main St. that’s slowly improving with the arrival of new shops — as a workshop space, offering classes for crocheting, knitting, painting and cartooning. But the concept had its flaws. “As much as people said they wanted to do it, when it came down to it, they didn’t have the time.” Meanwhile, she found her heart wasn’t completely into the business. “It wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

She kept the name and by the fall had pivoted her concept to selling gifty goods on consignment, starting with the creative work of some of the instructors who had been teaching for her.

While December was busy, Bramzell found this new approach not quite landing: Consignment was cumbersome to run, and she needed to be full-time in the store — she’d kept her coffee-shop job and was doing weekends only — to really make a go of it. Meanwhile, she realized that food was her true passion, plus she could build up a regular customer base with people who’d keep coming back for their favourite goods.

In January 2017, she pivoted again, keeping just a few gift items and stocking more food. The goal: Bring in as much local and artisan made goods as possible. Using social media and online ads, she found some inexpensive used appliances, and put in a sink (a Habitat for Humanity find). Her ever-expanding business network connected her to people making a range of treats; some of them lived just blocks away.

She ordered fresh bread from St. John’s Bakery, brought in canned items from Manning Canning and other local vendors. Locals told her imported Brennan Irish Sausages would draw people from far away, so she sourced those. She got a range of gluten-free products. And she started baking cookies, making pierogies ($9.95 a dozen) and putting together traditional British flapjacks ($2.30 each).

In April, she quit her job at the coffee shop and opened the store full time. She’s now looking into bringing in fresh produce and continuing to expand her offerings to tap into what locals want.

She still runs one cartooning class for kids, as everyone loves it, but the focus for now continues to be fresh, local and unique. In this cute (Bramzell calls her used decor items and appliances “cute by default”), aromatic food nook, locals from this up-and-coming corner of town can find just what they want to eat.

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